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Salad

Oil Dressing

A creamy dressing made from hard‑cooked egg yolks, oil, vinegar, mustard, sugar, cayenne pepper, salt, and egg white.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Oil Dressing

Why it works: Mustard and vinegar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,067 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Oil Dressing

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Rub the yolks of the hard cooked eggs until smooth.

  2. Add the cayenne, sugar, mustard, vinegar, and salt, mixing well.

  3. Gradually add the oil while stirring.

  4. Gently fold in the beaten egg white until combined.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Mustard + vinegartop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Pepper + mustardtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,430 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  3. Pepper + vinegartop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,814 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  4. Sugar + vinegartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,806 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  5. Sugar + mustardtop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,424 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Hard cooked egg yolks
Mashed smooth, they form the creamy base that thickens the dressing.
Oil
Added gradually, it emulsifies with the yolks to give the dressing body and richness.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the dressing and balances the richness of the oil and yolks.
Sugar
Adds sweetness that rounds out the sharpness of the vinegar and mustard.
Egg white
Folded in, it adds lightness and extra body to the dressing.

The step that matters

Gradually add the oil while stirring. Oil must be added slowly so the yolks can emulsify it. Adding it too fast can cause the dressing to separate instead of becoming smooth and thick.

Swap the mustard

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, pepper, sugar, vinegar):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Mustardthe original
  3. Cucumberfits less well
  4. Cabbagefits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, pepper, sugar, vinegar. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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